Today's Post 10/03/2014

Two new arrivals from over the weekend:

Strider - PS3

Super Shinobi 2 - MD

NEO XYX Collectors Edition

Yey I finally had an hour on NEO XYX last night:

   
Collectors Edition With Preorder T-Shirt

  Testing on the R#7

Firstly the packaging is great, stunning artwork and a really nice manual - I was a bit worried about this after seeing the pamplet you got with Redux. NGDEVTEAM have pulled together a professional product that would put quite a few official releases to shame.
Initial impressions of the game are very good, graphically it reminds me of a lost Toaplan episode and the graphics are lush with some beautiful sprites and well designed, over the top bosses. I like the simple shooting system too, one button activates the smart bomb (an impressive animation that's a nod to Tatsujin) and the other your main weapon. I must say don't play this using a pad unless you have to the game comes alive with a stick, I cannot get the D-Pad to recreate the twitching my of shmup style of play. There's well balanced and forgiving medal-style chaining system for when you get past playing for survival, did I mention the game is hard from the beginning? Well it is a stern challenge I managed to clear level 1 without dying on about my last credit of the 1st gameplay session. I like my shmups like this, I feel can get stuck into a challenging game and the sense of achievement was brilliant. I found myself shouting "YES" when I threaded my way through level 1 and finally took that boss down.
The default options for screen orientation are a bit weird in anything other than tate but you can tweak some of them to your heart's content.
So yes my verdict of the this fun and accomplished shmup is good, it feels like a solid Batsugun era shmup and more importantly like Fast Striker this is no Euroshmup. NGDevTeam have set a new benchmark to challenge themselves with, if their goal was to make quality Japanese-Style shooters I think they have achieved this.

I can't wait to see what they've got up their sleeves next.

Video in the pipline.

Today's Post 01/12/2013

Today's Post 19/11/2013

Sega Ages 2500 Puyo Puyo Tsuu Perfect Set - Japanese PS2. Another Sega Ages game this time Volume 12 of an obscure SEGA puzzle game that never made it out of Japan.

Today's Post 15/11/2013

Armed Formation F - PC Engine. Don't know much about this shooter but it was a steal for the price, it's an arcade port and the manual/cover art is lovely. Looking forward to playing this when I've got my PC Engine set up again.

Castlevania Lords Of Shadow Collection - PS3. Zavvi exclusive steelbook version of this collection which contains Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, two additional DLC chapters, the complete Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD adventure, and an exclusive Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 demo.

Today's Post 11/11/2013

P-47 - PC Engine. Another PC Engine shmup for the collection, and one I got at a decent price too. A bit simple in comparison to a lot of later horizontal shooters but still fun to play. This port compares favourably to the Arcade version as it's far more accessible. Gorgeous cover art too.

Gunstar Heroes - Japanese Saturn. Again another title I couldn't pass up at the price, loved the sequel and the HD port on XBL but I never picked up the PAL original because it's so damn expensive.

Ghouls and Ghosts - Japanese Megadrive Another title that I've been playing for years depite never actually owning a copy of the original (Via Capcom Compilations and borrowing the game). This hard as nails arcade adventure is a firm favourite of mine and after finally securing a copy it's the gorgeously designed Japanese packaging that's gracing my shelf!

Today's Post 05/11/2013

Instant Brain Limited Edition - Japanese 360 A Japanese interactive novel I've been after for years, there's one reason why any shooter fan needs to pick this up It contains an unlockable version of Arcade Dodonpachi as a bonus for completing the game.